Poppy’s Playmate
If you squint, it’s hard to differentiate the two little black mares who came in together as part of the Graham 27 seizure. They’re both small of stature, both rather narrow, both almost fully black. In the shadows, it’s hard to even tell they’re there. When night…
Zelly’s Progress
Zelly is the very definition of ‘looks good for her age.’ At 20, she is no spring chicken, but her physical condition and her mental acuity show a horse who still has a lot left in the tank. When first assessing Zelly on the ground, we met a horse who was…
Alumni Update: Glory
Glory is doing well. Melissa, Glory’s adopter, enjoys riding her in the wheat fields near where she lives. Melissa’s son is also starting to ride Glory and has dreams of doing some roping on her one day.
Good Boy Jax
What a nice horse Jax has turned out to be! He’s made such a transformation since entering our horsemanship program about a month ago. It’s been extremely enjoyable working with this gelding, and teaching him a new and better way of being. When we started working with…
Esme — Ready for Adoption!
Esme, started under saddle last fall, is coming along very nicely as a riding horse! She is a cute little mover, and is soft on a loose rein, walk trot and canter. She recently had her very first rides in the outdoor arena, and did great, even amongst many would-be…
Jacob’s Trial
Part of our adoption process at SAFE involves doing our best to ensure the matches made between horse and human are the best fits possible. We try to make sure of this before the horse is out the door – adopters are encouraged to come and visit with their potential…
Alumni Update: Doolin
Shannon does lots of groundwork with Finn (formerly Doolin) to help him relax and be less nervous and he is doing really well! She has ponied him with her older Quarter horse and is teaching him how to ride comfortably in the trailer. Last September, she brought Finn…
Moshi’s First Saddle
Of the Graham horses who came to SAFE, the majority were assumed (or known) to have at least some experience under saddle. A few, however, were wild cards. Moshi was one who fit into the latter category. Upon first glance, her small stature makes you think she is…
A Dental for Tiva
I’ll let you in on a little secret: we have a document that lists all our horses here at SAFE with all their different stats. Name, height, weight. When they last had their feet done, when they last were vaccinated. It’s a way to keep track of things, helps us…
Darla — Ready for Adoption!
Darla is ready for her forever person to take her home! This sweet mare has so much try and she is so fun to ride. Darla has come a long ways since she was surrendered to SAFE; from hardly halterable, to confidently rideable. While Darla can still be nervous at times…
Field Report: Working with Bijou
Kirsten AL, one of our horsemanship volunteers, has been working with Bijou the past several months, and has had the following to say about their time spent together: “What a fun horse to work with! In both being a gem with a heart of gold and a challenge with her set…
Alumni Update: Karma
Karma lives on 15 acres with her 17-year-old gelding buddy Ramsey. Her adopter, Sarah, doesn’t ride her anymore, but she seems to enjoy her life hanging out with her buddy. Karma is brought into a stall for an hour each day to eat her alfalfa, then she and Ramsey go…
Alumni Update: Leonardo
Leo is doing well on a nine-acre property with his companions, Alpine and Oak. Toni (Leo’s adopter) lives and works on the property. Toni is not currently riding Leo due to school and work commitments, but she does groundwork with him, and he gets a lot of attention…
Alumni Update: George
George’s adopter says “Finally finished our round pen for George! After five weeks of terrible weather and no riding, I got on him tonight and he was an absolute gem. He was very proud of himself too!”
Training Update: Poppy moving on the Wall
Little Poppy is hard at work in our horsemanship program, learning all sorts of new tricks. Because she has likely never been saddled before, we are putting her through all the paces with that as our first major goal, but we are working on other aspects of a…
Declan — Ready for Adoption!
Declan is ready for his new riding partner! This big, sweet, handsome gelding has overcome a lot of tension and anxiety when it comes to riding and is starting to relax, lower his head, and lengthen his strides more and more every week. Declan recently started riding…
March 2023 Joel Conner Clinic
Join us for the first Joel Conner horsemanship clinic of the 2023 season!! Come learn from Joel, see what our horsemanship program is all about and witness our horses in action. Join us at SAFE located here. March 24–26th from 9AM — 5PM Auditing is $30 each day | cash…
Regarding Henry
The first challenge that Henry and I faced together was helping him understand that “walk” is a gait that he’s allowed and in fact encouraged to use. Like many of the Graham horses, Henry would set off like a bat out of hell when turned loose in the round pen. He’s…
Training Update: Moshi
Little Moshi is settling in well here at SAFE, and has begun work in our horsemanship program alongside volunteer Lexee N. Lexee has been putting Moshi through all the beginning pages of the ‘Red Book’ in preparation for saddling her for the first time. It is our…
Sparrow’s Racing Past
Sparrow has a lip tattoo that denotes his past as a racehorse. However it’s odd: the letter that denotes the year of birth is missing, which made identifying who he was born as a bit more challenging. But by playing a game of trial and error with letters, we were able…
King 5 News: Over 20 horses seized from Pierce County property recovering
A majority of the horses seized during an animal cruelty investigation are recovering at Save a Forgotten Equine (SAFE) and will be available for adoption. Link to video on KING‑5 News Website Author: Julie Calhoun Published: 8:43 AM PST February 12, 2023 REDMOND,…
Alumni Update: Flynn
Flynn is doing great in his new home and obviously has adoring fans. Every time we see a photo of him and one of his fans, we screech with delight because of the cuteness.
Alumni Update: Tilt
Julie recently sent us an update on Tilt with exciting news! “Another update from down here in Santa Fe at what we’re calling Desert Jewel Ranch. A huge day for little Korra (formally Tilt). Thanks to Terry Ann Phelps-Peddy, Kaya Mead, Joel Conner and the SAFE…
Otto’s Tummy-ache
I played a lot of horse games on the computer growing up, most of them focused on eventing (the act of jumping or a piaffe reduced to pressing a single button on the keyboard). While this was fine, my main interest was drawn to the care parts of the simulators -…
KUOW Soundside Podcast: Giving Neglected Horses a SAFE Home
Last week, Bonnie was interviewed by KUOW about the Graham horses! Listen as she introduces the Soundside team to Henry on their recent visit to SAFE. Listen to Soundside on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Or visit the KUOW website at…
Jax’s Racing Past
Jax has a lip tattoo that denotes his past as a racehorse. It’s always fun when we get a horse who comes in with some kind of marker about who they were in their past — so often we don’t have any clue a horse’s history. Looking into Jax’s lip tattoo, we discovered he…
Alumni Update: Millie
Mille lives a happy life as the “queen” of her pasture! Although she is not being ridden, she is able to go on trail rides being ponied behind her pasture mate. She does very well on trails, even when they encounter bicycles, hikers, and other horses. We are so happy…
Volunteer(s) of the Year: Meghan, Monique and Trela!
We know you all have been holding your breath, waiting for us to announce our 2022 Volunteer of the Year! We wanted to surprise them in person (and film it to share with everyone! No pressure ladies) and it just so happened we couldn’t get them in on the property at…
Alumni update: Flynn
Cute photo of Flynn and a lesson student enjoying the warmer weather!
A Horse’s Best Friend
Veronica loves dogs! Not only if they just happen to be walking by her as she snoozes next to the fence line, but when she spots them, she comes right over and wants kisses. Our Saturday Barn Staff, Trudy, brings Titan her adorable husky to work each weekend. Trudy…
Alumni Update: Lucca
Jane loves trail riding and spending time with Lucca. When they are not riding the beautiful trails near Lucca’s boarding barn, Jane spends time hand walking, just to spend more time with her. Jane even brought Lucca to a Joel Conner clinic so our volunteers could…
SAFE Tax Donation Receipts were emailed yesterday!
2022 Tax Donation Receipts were sent out on January 31 via email to everyone who made at least one gift last year and who has an email on file with us. If you did not get one, it might be because we don’t have a working email address for you. If that’s the case, send…
Henry Health Update
All of the Graham horses are up to date on medical care, and have already had their feet done twice. Henry is no exception to this. The nervous, wild-eyed horse who arrived at SAFE after what was likely his first trailer ride is a far cry from the sweet horse who we…
Kelly’s Legs
Kelly arrived at SAFE with some significant dermatitis on her legs, with her hind limbs being the most severely affected. She had rubbed patches completely raw from itching, and had developed some sore spots on her fetlocks underneath all those lovely draft horse…
Alumni Update: Cassidy
Cassidy shares a five-acre pasture with her buddy, Salish. Currently, Cassidy is learning how to jump, and she loves it! Brianna, her adopter, rides her nearly every week on trails which is another activity that Cassidy loves. Brianna has tried several other…
Alumni Update: Whiskey and Shortbread
How cute are the recent photo updates from Whiskey and Shortbread?! We are happy to see the two are happy pasture pals on their 1.5 acres receiving all the love and care they deserve.
Pepper is Adopted!
Another one of our Fall City 40 is adopted! Our adorable, goat braying, fluffy maned little girl is all grown up and living her best life as a best friend to her big brother, Cal, a 17 year old 16HH Andalusian. Her adopter, Sue, was looking for another friend for Cal…
Foster Update : Gabby
We love seeing what Trisha is up to with our long eared Gabby girl. Recently, they have been working on the scary spray bottle, which Gabby would not even consider being around, until Tess (Trisha’s other horse) was interested. Gabby quickly got jealous of Tess…
Getting to Know Sparrow
Sparrow is the older of our two thoroughbred geldings. His lip tattoo, while a little bit difficult to read, seems to tell us he was originally called ‘Proud Texan,’ and was born in 2001, making him 22 this year. He has a significant swayback, and though he has most…
Getting to Know Hopper
Sweet man Hopper was a fast favorite amongst our volunteers given his gentle personality and love of scratches. Hopper tested positive for Cushing’s, which was little surprise to us given his especially furry coat, so each morning he gets his daily medication in a…
Getting to Know Addie
Little mare Addie seemed wise beyond her years when she first stepped off the trailer — for such a young horse (we thought she might be 3 at the time), she was already accustomed to picking up her feet and had no problem being blanketed. Despite her age, it is clear…
Training Update: Artie
Since his debut as a riding horse at the end of 2022, Artie has really shown he is the little horse who could. From his early days as a literal wild stallion to now, it’s hard to even picture him as the same horse. His nickname around the barn now is ‘puppy’ because…
Getting to Know Betty
Betty is the slightly smaller of the two big black mares, and she lacks a facial marking like her friend and counterpart, Eleven. But smaller is a relative term — this is a big lady, made even bigger by being overweight. Betty has been on a diet since she was checked…
Eleven
Eleven is the larger of the two big black mares, virtually identical to her paddock-mate, Betty, though Eleven boasts a cute facial marking. Eleven arrived at SAFE quite overweight, and during our initial vet check we ran bloodwork on her. Her results came back…
Limelight Features the Graham Horses
This week the wonderful ladies from the Limelight Pet Project came to meet the Graham herd! It is the largest feature they have ever done and we are so grateful they took on such a huge task. They spent the day with Graham horses capturing beautiful portraits of all…
Getting to Know Jax
Jax is the younger of our two thoroughbred geldings, his lip tattoo revealing him as being originally christened ‘Sir Gallagher,’ born in 2008, which makes him 15 this year. He arrived at SAFE with loose stool, which we helped clear up with a course of biosponge. Jax…
Getting to Know Evie
Snowflake appaloosa Evie is certainly striking to behold. Evie has a little bit of an attitude when asked to move forward, especially going up to the canter. She is also quite difficult to get going, so we are…
Getting to Know Picasso
Picasso has a name befitting his paint-erly coat. He lives alongside his neighbors, little mares Poppy and Moshi, who he is quite attached to. We went through all our checks, and saddled Picasso here at SAFE. He is very heavy on the forehand, and has a propensity to…
Getting to Know Poppy
Sweet little Poppy is the more timid of the two black pony cross mares, but it’s impossible to decide who is cuter. Poppy can be difficult to catch, so she still has to wear a breakaway halter to make it easier for her to catch in the paddock, but we have been working…
Getting to Know Henry
Henry, who arrived wide-eyed and nervous (it was his first time on a trailer, coupled with the uncertainty of a new place), has really begun to settle in at SAFE. He spends his days in a turnout with appaloosa mares Zelly and Evie on either side, and the three go to…
